It’s Cafe Makeup’s turn to have some fun with the Hourglass Ambient Blushes ($35 each). I’ve been playing with four of the shades—Hourglass Radiant Magenta, Mood Exposure, Luminous Flush, and Diffused Heat. These blushes are available at Net-A-Porter, Barneys New York, and Sephora.

These soft shimmery blushes are gorgeous in their pans. The swirls of luminous highlighter and color look absolutely gorgeous, and it’s sort of fun to swirl a brush on these and find out the actual color that they give. Above are Radiant Magenta, Mood Exposure, Luminous Flush. Below is Diffused Heat.

Because of their swirling pattern, no two blushes will be the same–even if their actual name is the same. Below are two different Radiant Magenta’s, and you can see that their swirl pattern is completely different.

I’ve found that applying these to properly moisturized skin topped with a luminous foundation gives a gorgeous look. Although some have reported short lasting power, I didn’t find that to be the case with my skin and the colors that I tried. However, I did notice that one has to go slowly with these and build. Specifically, when applying you might find that your brush is giving you very light pigmentation with these blushes. Then suddenly you add an extra layer and—voila!–maybe too much? Then I had to powder down a bit. So I find that it is best to use a light hand and layer, holding back a bit from a heavy, over-confident amount that can become a bit too bright.

Of the six shades that are in the current release, I think that I might have been happy with three total. I adore Hourglass Mood Exposure for natural, softly shimmered look.

I am also very glad to have Hourglass Radiant Magenta. I love this softly bright pink color, and cool pinks can be so flattering.

Of the remaining two, I could have gotten by with either Luminous Flush or Diffused Heat. Luminous Flush is pictured below.

Diffused Heat looks very different in the pan, but applies in the same color family.

Swatches of all four shades, taken in the light day sun with flash:

Another:

My son’s friend, Yoojin, dropped by to play with some of the Cafe Makeup vault one recent afternoon. I must admit, we had fun. Here, Yoojin is wearing Hourglass Mood Exposure on cheeks, a very light dab of Estee Lauder Sculpting Lipstick in Intense Nude, and the Narsissist Palette (still available at Sephora, Nordstrom, as well as at Saks). You can see that Hourglass Mood Exposure can give a very natural, subtle, sophisticated look.

One more, where you can see her cheek becomes a bit illuminated due to the subtle glow of the Hourglass Ambient blush:

Overall, I’ve been using and loving these blushes. Hourglass has captured some very pretty colors together with a touch of glow that is really very well done.

Hourglass provided Radiant Magenta to Cafe Makeup without charge for consideration for review. The other colors were purchased by me. This post contains affiliate links (for more information, see About Cafe Makeup).

I honestly can’t tell she’s wearing anything. The blush looks practically invisible on her, maybe it’s applied very lightly? I don’t see the radiance you’re seeing, the blushes do look pretty swatched. I wish it gave her a bit more flushed cheek color though, she has a nice skin tone!

Oh my, Hourglass blushes are like the ultimate blush porn to me. And here you have four of them!

The packaging, the interior, the product, everything’s perfect. I’m not sure if the marbling pattern, although mesmerizing, will pick up a different in amount of shimmer or pigmentation even though it has the same name. I don’t think the significance is big but the marbling is too pretty matter anyway.

I’m drawn to the swatch of Radiant Magenta but I prefer how Diffused Heat looks in the pan. It’s really gorgeous.

Unfortunately I am one of the folks who was disappointed with the lasting power of these blushes. I used the Luminous and looked radiant for less than 3 hours – then poof. Gone. I don’t have time to re-apply at work! They do look gorgeous in the pan though.